Former ABF Research Professor Named Chairman of White House Council of Economic Advisers

Former ABF Research Professor Named Chairman of White House Council of Economic Advisers

CHICAGO, September 14, 2010 – The White House announced that former ABF Research Professor Austan Goolsbee was named Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Goolsbee has been Staff Director and Chief Economist on the Economic Recovery Advisory Board and was already a member of the Council of Economic Advisers. Goolsbee, the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, began his association with the Obama administration as an economic adviser to the President’s 2004 Senate campaign

Goolsbee had been an ABF research professor since 1996 and resigned to join the Obama Administration in 2008. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Goolsbee has held a series of high-level advisory positions in government, including service on the Panel of Economic Advisers to the Congressional Budget Office and Special Consultant for Internet Policy for the U.S. Justice Department, Antitrust Division. He was named one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow at the Switzerland 2001 World Economics Forum. Prior to joining the Obama Administration he was a columnist for Slate Magazine and the New York Times. During his time in office he has frequently been a spokesperson on economic affairs.

Goolsbee’s research projects for the American Bar Foundation focused on the impact of public policy on the economy, particularly tax policy and policies affecting the Internet and the information economy. Goolsbee is known for innovative empirical analyses. His most recent ABF project used confidential data from the U.S. Census to determine the impact of local, state, and federal tax policies, as well as bank lending policies, on the success or failure of entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Robert L. Nelson, the Director of the American Bar Foundation, issued this statement on the announcement of Goolsbee’s appointment: “We congratulate Austan on his appointment to this critical post for economic policymaking and wish him the best of luck dealing with the challenges he faces in this new post.”

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